1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle upper body structure.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-140940, filed May 11, 2004, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
For a vehicle having a slide door that slides in the vehicle lengthwise direction, there is disclosed one in which there is provided on the upper side of the vehicle body a roof side rail that extends in the vehicle lengthwise direction, and a slide rail being supported by means of a bracket on the bottom side of this roof side rail (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 11-99961). Moreover, there is a vehicle in which a step part for arranging the slide rail is formed on the roof side rail, and the slide rail is supported by a roof side outer upper member, which is disposed so as to cover this step part from above.
In order to improve the rigidity of the vehicle body, it is desirable to strongly join a roof arch, which extends in the vehicle widthwise direction, and a pillar, which lies along the vertical direction, to the roof side rail, which is provided on the top side of the vehicle body and extends in the vehicle lengthwise direction.
However, it is difficult to strongly join the roof arch and the pillar onto the roof side rail in a vehicle having a slide door that slides as mentioned above, since such a vehicle requires a slide rail to be disposed on the inside in the vehicle widthwise direction, of the top side part of the vehicle body.
An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle upper body structure in which the roof arch and the pillar can be strongly joined onto the roof side rail in the case where a step part for arranging the slide rail is formed on the roof side rail.